Hilton Frankfurt has a new look

Travel Talk with Ed Finn

Saturday, 17 December 2022 - 12 minutes

"Mainhattan" - The Hilton pays homage to the Big Apple in Frankfurt

Travel Talk travelled to Frankfurt recently to meet Marc Snijders, General Manager of the Hilton Frankfurt City Hotel. Marc started as a banquet worker in the hotel 25 years ago when it opened and he tells me how the recent renovations have transformed the Hilton Frankfurt from a conventional international hotel to a more urban environment with the new design of the 184 deluxe and executive rooms. The Hotel today is urban, chic and homely. It's stylish decor uses earth tones, high-quality fabrics, natural materials and leather armchairs in the rooms.

New York-inspired public spaces

The refreshed lobby, check-in and lobby bar ties in with this same design style, with an expanded dining area that contributes to the bar and lounge area’s new chapter as a lifestyle destination for both guests and locals. And the check-in area’s new pods incorporate Rosso Levanto marble, copper mesh and walnut veneer to resemble the concierge desk of a New York residential high-rise.

The hotel’s remodelled public areas are bolstered by the inclusion of Park I Restaurant Terrace, Terrace on the Park, The Gekkos and the new Hudson Yards Bar, which is designed to look and feel like a classic bar in New York, featuring brass gantry shelving, custom counter lights, brass foot stops and a Rancilio Barista Machine. Frankfurt is an exciting city and has so much to offer. Marc tells me about the many cool museums and places to visit when you're there.

I flew with Aer Lingus to Frankfurt with flights from €49.99 each way and used the Frankfurt Card to travel by train from the airport to the centre. I visited the Christmas Markets which were really wonderful and should be a definite 'must see" for anyone who loves Christmas with over 12 different markets on offer. In recent years, well-kept, well-behaved Frankfurt has emerged as an unlikely competitor to Berlin for the title of Europe’s cool kid. Top Tip - There is nothing finer than sitting outside on the square in front of Frankfurter Römer, Frankfurt's step-gabled town hall, and having a beer and a sausage. We had a Frankfurterstadt wurst (Frankfurt City's signature sausage) and a large beer with a view in Medieval Frankfurt at Alten Limpurg. The Tourist Information centre is also located on the square.

Museum Embankment

In the 1980s the city authorities came up with the idea of a boulevard of museums – and the results were stunning. Around the Städel, a fine art museum with masterpieces spanning seven centuries, a gaggle of new museums sprung up, some in transformed historic villas, others in new purpose-built buildings. Today, the Museum Embankment (Museumsufer) hosts some of the most important museums in Germany, ranging from applied arts (Museum Angewandte Kunst) and architecture (Deutsches Architekturmuseum, temporarily closed) to film (Deutsches Filmmuseum), Jewish history (Jüdisches Museum) and antique sculpture (Liebieghaus). Lesser-known gems include the Ethnological Museum (Museum der Weltkulturen) with historical remnants of bygone times, a ‘Bible experience’ museum or the Caricatura museum for comic art.

One of the most celebrated artworks by the Italian Baroque painter Guido Reni (1575–1642) is currently in conservation at the Städel Museum.

Misunderstood, ignored, forgotten – Guido Reni (1575–1642) was one of the most successful and celebrated painters in all of Europe, coveted by the most important patrons. In the major exhibition "GUIDO RENI. The Divine", the Städel Museum rediscovers the former star painter of the Italian Baroque and opens up a new perspective on Guido Reni. In the film accompanying the exhibition, curator Dr. Bastian Eclercy explains what made Guido Reni so unique as an artist and as a person. Who in fact was Guido Reni and what is his trademark to this day?

Frankfurt's "new" Old Town

While many European cities have rebuilt buildings destroyed during World War I and World War II , only Frankfurt decided to turn back time on an entire district. Frankfurt’s “new” old town, the DomRömer Quarter, revitalizes a 75,000-square-foot area that was more than 90 percent destroyed between Cathedral Square and the Römer (a building dating to the Middle Ages). Already home to some 200 of the city’s residents, the old town development project has 20 new buildings and 15 replicas—among them Stadthaus, a brand-new community and conference center—integrated with shops, cafés, museums and plazas. Learn about the project and hear some of the history behind the reconstructed buildings during this two-hour walk offered by Frankfurt’s tourism office.

Frankfurt Tourist Web-site - https://www.frankfurt-tourismus.de/en/

Hilton Frankfurt - www.hilton.com

Aer Lingus Flights - www.aerlingus.com